Bogota Council votes to hire attorney in OPRA case

BOGOTA - The Bogota Council passed a resolution on July 3 hiring an attorney to represent a council member in litigation with 297 Palisade Ave. Urban Renewal, LLC.

Following a tense, often heated, closed session meeting, the council came back with a 3-2 vote in favor of authorizing the firm of Trenk DiPasquale Della Ferra & Sodono to represent Council President Jorge Nunez in an amended complaint which argues that both he and the borough are in violation of the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Nunez himself abstained from the vote.

The lawsuit, filed on June 20 in Superior Court, asks a judge to order the borough to release emails transmitted between Nunez and local members of the media pertaining to his criticism of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with the developer that was passed in September 2013.

In January of this year, attorneys for the developer filed an OPRA request seeking all emails to or from the government email address as well as any private email addresses used by Nunez for public business during the month of December 2013. After following up two weeks later, the borough clerk informed the attorneys that no such records existed as relayed to her by the "appropriate parties" involved.

Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne ruled that Nunez "had willfully violated OPRA," but did not determine whether certain withheld documents were public or government records.

The parties involved were ordered to confer in good faith with regard to the items in question, but there is still a dispute over several emails, which is the basis of this latest lawsuit.

The complaint, filed by Justin D. Santagata, Esq. of the firm Kaufman, Semeraro & Leibman, LLP, cites over 20 communications between Nunez and local reporters and editors that were not released by the borough.

The Demand for Relief section of the complaint, attorneys ask that the borough to immediately produce these documents and request an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and any other relief that the court deems equitable and just.

A staunch critic of the tax break since the resolution authorizing the agreement was given the green light, Nunez has contended that the multiple lawsuits that have been filed against him and the borough are in response to his public disparagements.

"The lawsuits are intended to harass and intimidate and ultimately silence my criticism," Nunez said on Tuesday. "They will not be successful in this regard. They should focus their efforts and resources on building their project so everyone can move on."

The decision to retain counsel at the July 3 meeting sparked a terse exchange between majority and minority council members and Mayor Tito Jackson, who asked to put a cap on the amount of money that could be expended on this lawsuit. The resolution contains no such cap.

On Tuesday, Jackson called the decision to authorize the borough to pay for the legal defense against the lawsuit "disgraceful."

"We’re on dangerous ground," Jackson said. "We are hiring attorneys for residents and now we’re hiring one to defend Councilman Nunez on something he was already found guilty of once. I don’t think that the taxpayers should be on the hook for this."